Abstract：Nine municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) located in Shanghai, China were selected for quantitative determination of perfluorinated acids (PFAs) in the influent and effluent. The total PFAs concentrations ranged from 903ng/L to 4628ng/L. The detection rates of short- and median-chain (C2-C10) perfluorocarboxylates (PFCAs) were generally higher than long-chain (>C10) PFCAs, while the detection rates of perfluorootanesulfonate (PFOS) were much higher than perfluorobutanesulfonate (PFBS) and perfluorohexanesulfonate (PFHxS). Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) was generally the predominant PFAs in municipal sewages and its concentrations were in a range of 359~4129ng/L, accounted 20%~93% for the total PFAs. Although the levels of PFOA and PFOS were not only lower than TFA, but also lower than some the other PFAs in some individual cases, they were still the major pollutants in most cases and their concentrations were 40.6~1571ng/L and 21.3~1027ng/L, and they constituted 2%~57% and 1%~30% of the total PFAs, respectively. During wastewater treatment process, the concentrations of short- and long-chain PFCAs decreased significantly while median-chain PFCAs and PFSAs increased significantly. In addition, there was no obvious positive correlation between the PFAs concentrations in municipal sewages and the ratios of industrial wastewater in the influents of WWTPs.
